wind power – Page 3 – Outrun Change

Two superb primers on energy

Without cheap, abundant, and reliable energy neither the construction, illumination, nor activity after dark you see here would be possible. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com. — Without cheap, abundant, and reliable energy none of the construction, illumination, or activity after dark you see here would be possible. Photo of San Diego skyline courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com.

I found two more in-depth discussions of energy. I’m writing this blog to help me learn what is going on around us. If you are tagging along on my learning journey, you really oughta’ check these out:

8/21 – Daniel Yergin at Wall Street Journal – The Power Revolutions /Natural gas, solar power and data-driven efficiency are making big gains, but history shows that the shift away from coal and oil won’t be fast or neat – Anything you see in print from Mr. Yergin is worth reading.

He points out that it takes an extremely long time to make any major transition in sources of energy.

Continue reading “Two superb primers on energy”

Bakken update – 8/28

A few articles on what’s going on in Bakken: tougher trafficking laws in effect, Williston Walmart no longer open 24 hours a day, $18 billion in state reserves, and new Williston airport moving forward.

7/8 – Bismarck Tribune – County okays windfarm near Tioga on a split vote – Landowners organized an effort to develop a wind farm which was bought by a commercial company. That effort has now led to a 75 turbine project that has been approved by County commissioners.

Continue reading “Bakken update – 8/28”

Update on Thunder Spirit wind farm near Hettinger

Your view for the next 25 years. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com — Your view on the farm for the next 25 years. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

In a sort of grand opening, the shell company that owns the Thunder Spirit wind farm invited the community to sign a turbine blade.

8/26 – Dickinson Press – Blade-signing event heralds wind farm near Hettinger – If you want to see how huge wind turbines are and why they are so deadly to birds, you gotta’ check out the photo that goes with the story. The cross-section of the blade, its width, is equal to the height of the people signing the blade.

The article quotes the Lt. Governor, Congressional representative, and county commissioner waxing philosophically how wonderful the economic impact will be from the wind farm.

Article does not contain any comment from the pair of golden eagles nesting two miles from a planned turbine. The couple did not provide any newsworthy quotes regarding the impact of the wind farm on their life expectancy.

Some other info on the Thunder Spirit slice-and-dice farm near Hettinger, North Dakota: Continue reading “Update on Thunder Spirit wind farm near Hettinger”

Swapping new solar farms for existing coal & nuclear plants will increase cost of electricity

Wind farm at a moment when the backup gas turbines can sit idle. Picture courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com — Wind farm at a moment during the day when the backup gas turbines can sit idle. Picture courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

The forced push to replace coal and nuclear power with wind will cost consumers dearly.

8/9 – Wall Street Journal – The Price Tag For Uprooting America’s Electric Grid – A new study from the Institute for Energy Research (IER) looks at the cost of constructing new energy sources with the cost from existing sources.

This is a big deal because the EPA’s goal of transforming the power grid will require shutting down a tremendous amount of already-operating plants and replacing that power with brand-new, intermittent, renewable power. That means shutting down existing coal plants and building new wind farms.

Bottom line is we will be shutting down conventional coal that produces electricity at $38.40 per megawatt-hour (mWh) in exchange for new wind farms at an all-in cost of $112.80/mWh.

Here are the costs calculated in the study, in dollars per mWh: Continue reading “Swapping new solar farms for existing coal & nuclear plants will increase cost of electricity”

FWS: Complying with federal law would be just toooooo difficult, so guess I’ll just ignore it. Federal Judge: Guess again.

Bald eagle at Minot zoo who isn't at risk of getting chopped up by a wind turbine. Photo by James Ulvog. — Bald eagle at Minot zoo who isn’t at risk of getting chopped up by a wind turbine. Photo by James Ulvog.

Turns out that Fish and Wildlife Service can’t just let the wind industry kill off eagles for 30 years without considering the environment issues because understanding the impact would be too hard to figure out.

8/13 – Courthouse News Service – Judge Rules for Eagles Over Wind Power – The Fish and Wildlife Service decided that when it gave special dispensation to wind farms to kill off a few eagles here and there they could grant permission for 30 years instead of the 5 years currently allowed. Under current rules, after the five-year limit expires the permission would be reviewed before allowing another 5 year to off a bunch of eagles.

Continue reading “FWS: Complying with federal law would be just toooooo difficult, so guess I’ll just ignore it. Federal Judge: Guess again.”

More news on the growing damage from Germany’s energy plan

offshore wind farm the east China sea. Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

Keep your eyes even partially open and you will see coverage of how poorly the plan to dump nuclear and rely on wind is working for Germany.

6/30 – The American Interest – Germany’s Energiewende Finds the Sour Spot – Germany’s official plan of energiewende is making everyone unhappy. Continue reading “More news on the growing damage from Germany’s energy plan”

USGS study shows grassland birds move nests away from wind turbines

Birds that are at risk of finding out why turbines are called slice-and-dicers. Pictures courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com. — Birds at risk of finding out why turbines are called slice-and-dicers. Picture courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com.

A 10 year study looking at nesting patterns of nine species of grassland birds in the Dakotas found that seven of the species relocated their nests away from good breeding ground after wind turbines were constructed.

Continue reading “USGS study shows grassland birds move nests away from wind turbines”

Environmental devastation from constructing wind turbines and solar farms.

Turbines under construction in Holland. Picture courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com.

Constructing turbines or solar panels consumes vast amounts of natural resources. Consider just some of the resource drain created by ‘renewable’ energy discussed on 1/13/15 at The Scotsman: Comment: Renewables drain our resources –

Wind turbine towers are constructed from steel manufactured in a blast furnace from mined iron ore and modified coal (coke). Turbine blades are composed of oil-derived resins and glass fibre. The nacelle encloses a magnet containing about one third of a tonne of the rare earth metals, neodymium and dysprosium. Large neodymium magnets also help propel electric cars.

A third of a ton of rare earth metals for every turbine. So what? Consider: Continue reading “Environmental devastation from constructing wind turbines and solar farms.”

Construction of wind farm in Scotland contaminated the water

Water in an area around a 215 turbine farm in Ayrshire contains high levels of E.coli along with other coliform bacteria. Water has far more than the safe levels of trihalomethane (THM). That stuff has been linked to a variety of cancers, miscarriages, and stillbirths. Discussed at New Evidence: Wind Farms Contaminating Water Supply in Scotland.

The power company running the slice-and-dicers denies having caused the pollution but does acknowledge that they failed to warn residents that the water supplies could be contaminated as a result of the turbines.

So in Scotland it looks wind turbines are causing human health damage from diarrhea and miscarriages in addition to causing ecological damage from killing off birds and bats.

Wind turbines contaminating drinking water? How does that happen?

Continue reading “Construction of wind farm in Scotland contaminated the water”

Rounded to the nearest percent, solar provided zero percent of US electricity in 2014

large solar farm in England producing electricity — large solar farm in England; photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

Energy Information Administration sent this tweet a few days ago:

How much of the total electricity generated in 2014 was from wind and solar?

Let’s do some math –

Continue reading “Rounded to the nearest percent, solar provided zero percent of US electricity in 2014”

Resale price of a wind farm, almost new, barely any miles, just off the dealer’s lot

Per megawatt:

$2.5M – construction cost
$0.5M – resale price

As I notice articles describing the construction cost to build wind and solar facilities, I’m accumulating the information. A while back there was a discussion on the resale price. Compared to slice-and-dicers, a brand new car holds its value incredibly well.

Depreciation from driving a car off the dealer’s lot is nothin’ compared to a wind turbine.

4/17 – Million Dollar Way- Let’s Do The Math — April 17, 2015; Original Price: $2.6 Million / MW — Sold For $500K / MW Continue reading “Resale price of a wind farm, almost new, barely any miles, just off the dealer’s lot”

Two more data points on cost to build renewable energy sources

I’m accumulating data points on the construction cost to build energy facilities. Two articles give info on three projects:

$2.5M / mW – solar
$1.6M / mW – wind
$1.6M / mW – wind

Continue reading “Two more data points on cost to build renewable energy sources”

Extremely costly offshore wind farm will start producing expensive electricity late in 2016

The Wall Street Journal reports First Offshore Wind Farm in U.S. Powers Ahead – The first offshore wind turbines in the US will start construction soon and is expected to produce electricity late next year. Located a few miles off Block Island, Rhode Island, the turbines will replace diesel as source of electricity for the 1,000 residents.

The electricity has been purchased under a contract with National Grid with starting prices above market and rates to increase 3.5% each year for the 20 year life of the contract. Cost for the residents of the island will go down because this is replacing expensive diesel that is shipped to the island.

After some background, let’s look at the construction costs per megawatt of theoretical capacity.

Continue reading “Extremely costly offshore wind farm will start producing expensive electricity late in 2016”

When we think about the damage to bats, maybe we should call a wind turbine ‘slicer-dicer-decompressor’

A commenter on another post introduced me to the term barotrauma. His concise explanation:

There is also something called barrotrauma, that is pulmonary embolism caused by a bat or bird flying behind the spinning blades. No contact is necessary and bats and sometimes birds can fly for quite a distance before hemorrhaging to death.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I’m not concise. So here is my longer explanation.

My correspondent refers to this summary. You can find the full article on the second tab of that link. I don’t see a specific data, but do notice a 2008 copyright date.

I also found the article here: Barotrauma is a significant cause of bat fatalities at wind turbines.

The team of biologists explain wind turbines create a low-pressure area behind the turbine. Bats have superb echo locating ability so they can easily identify turbines and stay out of their way. The low-pressure area is undetectable for them.

Continue reading “When we think about the damage to bats, maybe we should call a wind turbine ‘slicer-dicer-decompressor’”

Update on North Dakota wind farm projects

Here are few updates on one approved and one cancelled slice-and-dice project in North Dakota.

First, an update on the damage from wind turbines – 5/6 – Million Dollar Way – Great Prarie-Chickens Demand Wind-Turbine Free Zones – Researchers studying prairie-chicken nests, called leks, over a five-year period found that the leks are more likely to be abandoned within 8 km of slice-and-dicer turbines. More evidence of the environmental damage from wind power, which is an expected consequence.

About that cancelled project – I’ve previously mentioned Dickinson Wind, LLC was trying to get permits for an 87-turbine wind farm.

Continue reading “Update on North Dakota wind farm projects”